False claim by Anubhav’s father: HC seeks Odisha govt report

The Odisha High Court Tuesday directed the state government to file its reply in the form of an affidavit within two weeks in a case pertaining to alleged forgery of testimonials by Abhay Kumar Mohanty, father of BJD Rajya Sabha member and Ollywood actor Anubhav Mohanty.

The directions were issued by a single-member bench of Justice S C Parija of the High Court.

While petitioner advocate Nishikant Mishra himself placed his arguments before the court during the hearing, the Vigilance department informed the court that it has submitted its report to the Higher Education department after completing its investigations in the matter.

The court had earlier directed the Higher Education department to give its reply on what steps the department had taken on the basis of the report submitted by the Vigilance department. However, the Higher Education department failed to place facts before the court in this regard on Tuesday during the hearing. The court directed the Higher Education department to file its reply within two weeks on what steps it has had taken on the basis of the report submitted by the Vigilance department.

It may be noted that Abhay Kumar Mohanty, who retired as a professor from Kandarpur College, had cited in his application seeking promotion that he had done two refresher courses – one from Berhampur University and other from Utkal University.

Another lecturer Durga Prasad Nanda had sought information in this connection under the RTI. Through the RTI reply, it came to light that Utkal University had not issued any certificate/testimonial to anyone for any course during that period.

Based on the information provided under RTI and finding that the information provided on the refresher course to be false, Mishra had lodged a complaint with the Vigilance department and registered a case at the High Court in 2014.